Great-great grandmother Eileen Elliott, who turned 106. 76878 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By Alesha Capone
WERRIBEE great-great grandmother Eileen Elliott had several candles to blow out last week.
The senior citizen, believed to be Wyndham’s oldest resident, celebrated her 106th birthday on Tuesday.
As a mother of four, grandmother of 12, great-grandmother of 24 and great-great-grandmother of two, Mrs Elliott has seen many changes in the world since being born during 1906.
Eldest daughter, Edna Baird, said her mother lived in Coburg for 65 years and now resides at the Werribee Terrace Aged Care Facility.
“She was a great mother, because she was my friend and pal as well as my Mum. We did everything together,” Mrs Baird said.
Mrs Baird said her mother and father, Phil, met a dance and married at the age of 23.
Phil served as an air-raid warden during World War II and would ride his pushbike from Coburg to Fishermans Bend, in Docklands, every day to work on the aeroplanes housed there.
In her younger days, Mrs Elliott was also a tireless charity worker, and is a life governor of the Royal Women’s and Austin Hospital’s auxiliaries.
As a child, Mrs Elliott had a sister and three brothers, including one who returned home from World War II’s notorious Changi prison and lived until the age of 92.
“She talked about him having scars on his back from being whipped,” Mrs Baird said.
“My Mum also had cousins in Epping and they had 13 children in the family.
“She would go to Epping on the train, and then the horse and cart, she spent all her school holidays out there.
Living for more than a century seems to run in Mrs Elliott’s family – her father passed away at 104.
